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Because of talk of a cross-realm all-hunter raid, I started asking myself, "How good is Spirit Mend?" I have four of the exotic spirit beasts that provide that pet ability, so I did some experimentation.
First off some basics. I had my normal raiding gear on without any buffs. I was of course BM-talented so there are a few tweaks there. Most notably the BM bonus of Animal Handler, the BM-only talent of Longevity and the trans-tree mandatory talent of One With Nature. This gives me 22,771 Ranged Attack Power (RAP) and makes the cooldown of spirit mend 28 seconds. The formula for Spirit Mend is:
(1237 + ((RAP * 0.35) * 0.5)) plus an additional (475 + ((RAP * 0.35) * 0.335))
So filling in for 22,771 RAP we get:
5,222 plus 3,145.Now of course I did some practical tests. Those tests demonstrate that I am missing a few components and that I don't understand HoTs.
I consistently got more than the initial 5,222 heal on random people in the city. (Specifically, not me or my pet.) I got 6735, 6469, 7200, and 6546. They are around 30% better than expected. The only thing that I can think of is that the RAP shown on the character sheet doesn't include Animal Handler or One With Nature, or they are double-dipping somehow.
The HoTs I got were 4159, 3945, 4436, and 4033. Again more than expected. What I don't quite understand is that those numbers are per tick and it ticks every 2 seconds for ten seconds. So five applications of a 4K+ HoT.
I was able to go a bit nuts. If I popped an agility trinket (worth +2290 agility) and cast it on myself (with the healing talent buff Spirit Bond, I got a nice crit for 14402 + (4435 x5). The initial heal appears to be a crit and the HoT is not.
When I added in roar (+549 agility) on top of casting it on myself, and popping a long CD trinket I got two decent numbers and a crit (exactly double one of the values):
18028 + 5650x5In the best of circumstances and pulling all the plugs, Hunters have very very weak heals. If the heal is applied to a pet-tanker pet they'll get +10% from Spirit Bond and +40% from Blood of the Rhino. Those are nice bonuses and mixed with Mend Pet will keep a pet-tank up for a nice long time. The problem is that a Spirit Mender will only kick out those heals once every 28 seconds. So they will usually be on the pet-tank or themselves. The rest of an all-hunter raid will need to be self-sufficient with Marksman self-heals. A 6.5K heal with a 4K 5 tick HoT every 28 seconds will not be helping much at all on a raid-damage fight.
7552 + 4671x5
9014 + 5650x5
I stopped playing my hunter a while ago, so maybe I'm missing something obvious here. BUT the 28 sec cd applies to each pet, so although there isnt much that can be done to help with how weak the heal is, the cd could at least be reduced by having multiple spirit beasts to call on and cycle through with pet dismissing. 4 pets is about right as well. Still not superb, but it might help?
ReplyDeleteInteresting idea! Note: It's a 2 second channeled cast, but certainly can be done during combat.
ReplyDeleteT5 2-piece set bonus provides 15% of the hunter's damage as pet-healing.
ReplyDeleteTrue, and I have that as I expect many pet-tankers do. The nerf to stamina (and the health of the pet) from wearing it is pretty severe even if it's just shoulders and gloves.
ReplyDeleteCertainly worth considering in the new context of an all-hunter raid though.
Hmmm Let me think... You could always have a few dedicaded hunters, whom all have 5 SB, and have them call SB1, /target tanking pet, /cast Spirit mend, dismiss SB1, call SB2, rinse and repeat.
ReplyDeleteYou would probably exhaust all 5 SB within 10-15 seconds, but if you could stack 3 hunters that could then rotate, you could potentially have a SM being cast on the tanking pet ever other second.
Or if you really needed, hold off on the rotation for when the tank may need extra heals and have 2 hunters doing it in sync for double SMs every other second... With the rolling Hots left over 10 secs and stacking, It just might be enough to get an all hunter raid though some of the tougher healing requirements for some bosses.
Anyways, just random musing :)
S.b.